Surprisingly long Safety Car periods interrupted the action during the closing stages of two of the last three grands prix.
In both cases the interruptions were caused by a single lapped car (coincidentally, it was Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes each time). And on both occasions the race restart was delayed due to the decision to allow lapped cars to rejoin the lead lap.
“It’s going to take forever,” complained Lewis Hamilton as the Safety Car period dragged on during the last race at the Circuit de Catalunya. “They do love wasting laps.”
The drivers’ patience was tested two weeks earlier at Imola, where the Safety Car spent the best part of a quarter of an hour on-track. The Spanish Grand Prix interruption lasted 10 minutes. A substantial chunk of this was spent sending the lapped cars around.
Moving the lapped drivers aside is a long-established practice. But it is a more time-consuming process these days as the process cannot begin until the track is clear. This became practice to avoid a repeat of the kind of dangerous situation which occured at Imola in 2020.
Does sending the lapped cars around now waste too much time? Or is it worth reducing the number of racing laps in order to ensure drivers who are fighting for position restart next to each other?
For
The Safety Car should be on-track for the least amount of time possible. Sending the lapped cars around drags the procedure out. At Catalunya the track was clear within six minutes of Antonelli stopping but the unlapping procedure added another four minutes, needlessly extending the delay by two-thirds.
F1 already has some of the strictest blue flag rules in motor racing, far tougher than in series like IndyCar. Even if lapped cars remained in place, they would quickly be waved aside, so wasting potential racing laps moving them out of the way simply isn’t necessary.
Against
The long Safety Car periods seen at recent races were not solely caused by lapped cars. At Imola it took an unusually long amount of time to move Antonelli’s car aside due to the lack of room to recover vehicles at that point on the track. It took 11 minutes to clear the hazard and just three to sort out the restart order.
Leaving lapped cars in position inhibits racing and creates confusion as restart order at the front of the field does not necessarily reflect the running order. Moving them out of the way may reduce the number of racing laps but it improves the racing in those laps.
I say
The Virtual Safety Car is clearly a preferable alternative to the Safety Car when it can be used as it creates less disruption to the running order and preserves the gaps between the drivers. In short, it’s a fairer solution and I prefer to see F1 use it when possible.
That isn’t always the case, however, as sometimes it’s necessary to close the pack together in order to give marshals more time and space to work. Once that hazard is cleared, the race should resume.
I don’t accept the argument that the lapped drivers must be moved out of the way during a Safety Car period. The drivers who have already lapped them will have lost time doing so, and on top of that have had any advantage they built up over their pursuers wiped out.
The Safety Car inevitably disadvantages some drivers compared to others, which is undesirable, and moving the lapped cars aside only adds to that. What’s more, it does it by extending the length of the Safety Car period and reducing the number of racing laps. To me, that’s a lose-lose situation.
On top of that, F1 has the added complication that the decision whether to send the lapped cars around is made at the discretion of race control. This led to a huge controversy a few years ago. A consistent policy should be enforced, and that should be to leave the lapped cars where they are.
You say
Should F1 allow lapped drivers to unlap themselves in Safety Car periods? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Should F1 move lapped cars back onto the lead lap during Safety Car periods?
- Don’t know / no opinion (7%)
- No – never (51%)
- Yes – but only when race control chooses to (16%)
- Yes – always (26%)
Total Voters: 70
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